Here you will find information about our research project, including a timeline of due dates. Let's learn about the Circus! I am excited to read about all of the things you learn!

The document below is three pages...

Go Noodle

I hope you’ve heard your child talk about using GoNoodle.com in our classroom. We use this free website of interactive videos to help us get the wiggles out, focus, dance, stretch, practice mindfulness, and much more!

This summer, GoNoodle is launching a free summer program called Camp GoNoodle that helps kids stay active, use their imaginations, and explore their world. Each week in July, there will be a set of adventures to complete, two Camp GoNoodle songs to learn, and a badge to earn! Once you join (totally free), you’ll receive an email when the new weekly adventure has arrived. Your child can go to GoNoodle.com to check it out on their own, or you can do the adventures together as a family.

To join, go to GoNoodle.com, and sign up for a free parent account. If you already have a GoNoodle home account, all you need to do is look for your ﬁrst Camp GoNoodle email on June 29.

Our class loves GoNoodle at school, and I know Camp GoNoodle will be a big hit over the summer too. You can click on the link below to sign up for a free account.

Summer Reading OpportunitiesSchool is over for a summer break, but don't forget to keep reading! 1. The Bourbon Public Library has a great summer reading program that is a fantastic way to get some books, read amazing adventures, and have fun.

2. Storia - Over 2000 book titles for online reading.https://www.storiaschool.com/#/students/loginStudents should know their password to Storia and/or have it glued to their homework folder. Contact me if you can not find it and I can help you.

2. MyOn - Over 4000 book titles for online reading provided through the Indiana Department of Education and Hoosier Family Readers.https://myon.com/In the center of the screen you will see a bar that says "Log in now" to click on and get started with this resource

4. Class Webpage - Don't forget our class web link page has many opportunities in all subject areas. Have a great summer and come back strong this fall!

5. Ask - If you need something and you are not sure where to look, PLEASE ASK! I might be able to help, so email me at cstrycker@triton.k12.in.us or message me from Class Dojo. I will do my best to get back to you as quickly as possible. Enjoy your summer!

It has been a great year!We have learned so much and grow too. Thank you for making this a wonderful school year. Take a look at our last day pictures!

Earth Day and Family
Fun!As the weather gets
warmer getting outside is something we all look forward to. Click on the link
below to access a site that is full of ideas for outside family fun. Summer is
coming and this site also lets you locate places that everyone can have fun.
You can find locations by distance, desired activities, and dates. Enjoy
looking around this site! http://www.naturerocks.org/index.htmThird grade students received
a tree on Wednesday, April 22nd from the Indiana Department of
Natural Resources. These trees are a way to encourage taking care of the earth
and helping the environment. The seedling trees that third grade students were
given this year were the black oak. The seedling trees were shipped for
the DNR through the Jasper-Pulaski State Nursery.

Black Oak (Quercus
Velutina)The black oak tree is
a medium to large-sized tree with open, spreading crowns.They are distinguished by the yellow or
orange colors in their bark.Black Oak is
used in the wild for food and shelter.It is a favorite food source to animals because of its small
acorns.

A mature tree will
range from 50 feet – 100 feet tall.Its
leaves are 4” to 9” long and 3”-6” wide with 7 to 9 lobes.It has a shiny green upper part and
yellow-green lower part with brown hairs.The leaves turn dull red or brown in the fall.The black oak has yellowish flowers that
appear with young leaves in May.

Practicing Research While Applying It To PowerPointDuring reading review week we were able to take time away from our regular readers and learn more about our earth by studying how volcanoes work. We read a story in class called "Volcanoes, Nature's Fireworks." This story allowed us to discuss how these amazing, but dangerous land forms are created and how they work. Students then were directed to some web links to go to in order to learn more with some guiding questions to answer. After researching was complete, we worked at discovering how PowerPoint works to add our findings and pictures to slides. Students then were able to demonstrate and share their findings to the class using their presentations.

Take a look at our class cookbookLearning about Cultures and Family The weekly selection stories that we have been reading in our reading book in unit 5 have been allabout families and their cultures/heritage. Unit 5.4 had a story called "Jalapeño Bagels" where a boy had a school a ssignment to bring something in that shows his family culture. Our students were given Family Tree pages to take home and ask about their families. Students were to complete one family tree (both sides if they wish) with the help of someone at home. Spelling names, places, and getting dates were helpful to students were trying to learn about their family. Our selection story also featured a special recipe that the boy (Pablo) felt meant something to his family. I also asked students to find a special recipe used in their family to share with our class. Students have contributed to making a cookbook full of special family recipes. Thank you for your help in sharing your family favorites with us! We have some wonderful cooks!

Branches of GovernmentOur class has been learning about the branches of government recently. We have found that there are three main parts known as the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial. Each branch has specific people and special jobs that they are responsible for to help make our country work. Students have discovered that the reason for three branches is because it is a way to prevent any one group of people becoming too powerful and creating bad rules or laws for everyone else. We know that it is not a perfect system, but it is the one that we use in America. Students created foldable envelopes in their journals with facts about each department. Teams of classmates could then play a game to correctly sort out the jobs of each branch.

Talented DesignersOur class created this very cute and colorful door to show their Trojan Pride using minions. Everyone created their own minion and then wrote a way that they could show pride on a thought bubble. The cloud at the top of the door says, "Showing Pride is an always thing, not just one in a minion." Each classroom at Triton Elementary designed a door for the Trojan Pride theme. Doors were voted for how well they demonstrated the pride theme, and our class was one of three winners in the school! Ms. Smith and Mrs. McFarland were also voted as winning doors. Way to go class! Students will enjoy a pizza party for their efforts Friday, March 6th.

Ag Day at Triton High SchoolToday our class enjoyed a visit to the high school to learn about animals on the farm. High school students from April Leeper's agriculture classes took time to bring in animals and prepare information to share with our elementary students about these animals. Everyone had a great time taking a break from all of our review work to have some fun learning during the afternoon. Here are some snapshots of our afternoon!

Research WritingOur class has been working for over a month at learning how to do research and write an informative story from what we have discovered. Students were planning a trip to the Shrine Circus, so they were already reading about the circus. They then had the opportunity to select a circus that they wanted to learn more about. We created folders with envelopes that could hold notes about each topic as we learned about them. We practiced note taking, organizing, adding details and transition words between ideas and paragraphs to create a working rough draft report. Students helped each other by reading their work to each other and gathering feedback about what made sense or needed more work. The final step will be learning how to use Microsoft Word to type and publish their stories. Stories will be available to read on the bulletin board outside of our room soon! GREAT JOB CLASS!!!

Our class
has been learning about being healthy this semester.Today our classroom had a chance to see just
how effective hand washing can be in fighting germs that can make us sick.Students were sprinkled with glitter to
represent germs, and then asked to clean their hands in ways we commonly
see.For example, we see some people do
not even wash their hands, but wipe them on their pants, others give a quick
rinse, and still others actually use soap and water to clean carefully.Our students were able to see a realistic
representation of how germs can remain on our hands and spread when they are
not washed correctly.

SERVING UP MY PLATE: A YUMMY CURRICULUMOur class has a new guest joining us each week to help us learn about eating healthy! Kathe Beehler is working as a youth food nutrition practitioner through the Marshall County Purdue University Cooperative Extension Office. Since it is well documented that youth establish lifelong food, nutrition, and physical activity habits during their younger years, this program is available to students from grades 1-6. Evidence suggests that well-nourished children are more likely to perform better in school because they have more energy to stay alert and engage in learning. This curriculum is based on common core/state standards to provide nutrition and health information, as well as, opportunities to practice new skills. Lesson topics include: Nutrition Basics, Physical Activity, Dietary Guidelines for America, and Fight BAC concepts of clean, separate, cook, and chill. Kathe Beehler will be providing this program to our Triton Third Graders for once a week for six weeks!

Welcome Back to 2015!We started off the new school year with a surprise two hour delay, but it seemed right to be back in class again! Everyone commented about their great winter break activities and were ready to dig into the second semester of our school year! This will begin the extra busy time of our year and bring along with it many new and big challenges to learning! Remember to use time wisely to listen, learn, and complete tasks because it is easy to get left behind with everything that will be happening in the coming months! I am looking forward to the amazing things we will complete and succeed in! Families can be kept aware of student expectations on the homework section of our webpage, looking at daily/weekly pink homework logs, reading our weekly newsnote, reminders on our class text service "REMIND 101," and even in special notes home.

YEAH IT'S CHRISTMAS!Our class had fun making Christmas presents for their families at our class Christmas party. Students made two different surprises and a gift bag to take home. We also enjoyed so many wonderful treats during our party and watched a fun Christmas video before going to the all school sing in the gym. Our kids has some pretty amazing parents because our treat selection for the party was amazing! We had so many yummies including cute reindeer bags and candy cane sleighs! Talent, talent, talent!!! THANK YOU for helping us to have a wonderful day! I also want to thank everyone for being so generous to me with so many thoughtful gifts. I always tell the students that no gifts are necessary, the best gift is for them to do their very best in school! We are well on our way to that gift, and it was very nice to hear so many students tell me that they would miss school and even me over winter break. I miss them too and I think that their comments mean school may be hard, but not so bad...learning can actually be fun! Thank you all again and I wish you all a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS! Clean out those bags and folders ready for a great start towards an amazing second semester of learning in 2015!

Digital Media Classes with Mrs. ShaferEach week when our third graders go to library
they not only enjoy hearing stories read and picking out books to take with
them to enjoy later, they also learn many things having to do with using
computers in common sense ways.Mrs.
Shafer, the Triton Elementary librarian, has educated herself about a program
called Common Sense Media. Common Sense Media is a groundbreaking curriculum, used by more than 70,000
schools worldwide, to be used by teachers and students to learn about digital
citizenship and literacy.Today she is
showing students how to make smart searches to gain more understanding about
topics they need to know.This will be a
lifelong skill for students, but these third graders will be putting their
search skills to use next week as they research winter related topics to
complete a writing project in the classroom.

Happy ThanksgivingOur classes have been studying the early communities of Native American Indians and Early English Settlers known as the Pilgrims. Students were able to enjoy a mini feast to see what the first Thanksgiving may have been like. Students learned many surprising facts about this historical event. The most amazing fact is about the kinds of foods that are eaten during the holiday today, are much different from those eaten over 400 years ago in 1621. The first Thanksgiving was actually known as the Harvest Feast to celebrate the successful harvest of crops in the new land. Nobody knows for certain what was on that first table, but we do know it was not pumpkin pie topped in cool-whip and cranberry jelly on the side. Enjoy your families over the Thanksgiving break!

Creative Students at work...

Adding a touch of challenge to our regular learning standards is something we like to do in our class. Occasionally I offer a way to extend some type of learning that our class has worked on and allow students to get creative. They are offered many options for demonstrating their learning and select the way that most fits them. These challenge activities help students solidify what they have learned and even extend that learning into deeper meaning. They provide a chance to learn many skills that will be used throughout their lives, make learning fun, and allow students to have time to shine and feel proud of their additional accomplishments! Hannah took the first challenge offered by our class and created a trifold/travel brochure about Fair Oaks Dairy to share wit the class. She shared with us how she designed her project and explained about what she had learned. Great job Hannah!

Learning about American Indians As part of our Indiana state standards, third graders focus on learning about many different types of communities. In anticipation of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, students are learning about the American Indians and European Settlers. Students have started researching and discovering facts about these cultures to gain and understanding of how different communities and culture areas made the United States what we know it as today. One interesting thing that they have noticed is that American Indians had a great respect for nature and its beauty. They made everyday items works of art. Budding artists worked to create their own American Indian art to place in a mini-classroom museum exhibit.

Flashlight Friday!!!

Our class celebrated the end of unit 2 in reading with a special time to just sit on comfy blankets and pillows, relax with a snack, a book, and a friend. We have worked hard to learn about main idea, supporting details, cause and effect, author's purpose, and sequence during the last five weeks of our reading classes. Today was a great day to be proud of all that we have learned.

Making ButterStudents in our class had one last fun activity related to our studies on rural communities, cows, nutrition, and products...BUTTER!!!! We learned so many things during our studies, but we only had a chance to read about how products such as cheese and butter are made. Students got the chance to see first hand how fat particles separate from the liquids (curds and whey) and create a tasty treat. Students found that it took a whole lot of shaking to create a delicious snack that they could spread on crackers and enjoy. Leftover butter was put in bags and taken home for families to try! Learning is YUM!

Fair Oaks DairyWe had a wonderful sunny warm day at Fair Oaks Dairy Farm today! A big thank you goes out to all of the fantastic families that joined us to help make sure all of our kids were accounted for and safe. We saw so many great things. We started in Diva Hall where everyone could look at the information on the cows and answer questions for cow stickers. We moved in to the interactive area with a dairy-go-round, milking area, and lots of other games. We were then able to get on one of the comfortable air conditioned buses to ride down to another part of the dairy to see, the digester tanks that help turn cow manure into energy, a large pile of silage, dry cows, calves in huts, and the milking dairy-go-round. It is amazing that 72 cows can ride at one time being milked. It was great to be able to feel the warm milk in the tubes that are the temperature milk is coming out of the cow, and we could feel the tubes of cooled milk! It was a BIG difference. When we returned to the visitor center we rushed over to the birthing barn just in time to see a baby being born! Within ten or so minutes there was another baby born too. The man at the birthing barn said that they were both baby boys! Everyone was happy to get to lunch next, and then we went through the exhibit hall. This year we luckily had 45 minutes left to visit the cheese factory/gift store and bouncy outside area. All of the kids were having a great time, so I am sure they will be talking about the things they saw for awhile now! Thanks again everyone for a great trip!

Nurse Newman VisitsNurse Newman is not only a talented nurse for everyone at Triton Elementary School, she is also a multi-generational dairy farmer from Marshall County. She was able to come join our third grade classes today to share some things that happen on a dairy farm, share stories about how cows are shown for competition, 4-H dairy projects and dairy judging, along with an inspiring story of a blind girl that is an outstanding showman. She told us how no matter what, you need to keep trying to be the best you can! Thank you Nurse Newman!

Lions Club Comes to Third GradeRepresentatives from our surrounding local Lions Clubs brought a generous gift to every third grader at Triton Elementary. This committed community service organization bought dictionaries to give to every third grader in our school. These dictionaries are to be kept at school, and then each student will take them home at the end of the school year. We will be able to use these wonderful resource tools throughout the year, so we greatly appreciate the kindness of the Lions!

Trojan Pride Kick Off:

Triton Elementary had a special guest and former Triton student visit to unveil the new Trojan Pride T-Shirt for this year. Our guest was Justin Vining. He currently lives and works in Indianapolis where he works as an artist. He reminded our students that Personal Responsibility, Respect, Integrity, Determination, and Enthusiasm are all very important skills to have and will help lead to them successful careers. He encourages students to show PRIDE and to especially be enthusiastic in the things they do. You can read more about Justin on his link: http://justinvining.com/ Below you will find photos from the Trojan Pride Kick Off, student t-shirt winners, student designers, and Mr. Riffle, with Justin and Justin's first Triton teacher, Laura Reese. SHOW YOUR PRIDE!!!

Studying Rural Communities

Katie Ingerson, the Purdue Marshall County Extension Agent, joined the third grade classrooms at Triton Elementary School to teach us many things. She did a great job of sharing how cows give us many more products besides milk. We found out that cows help the environment by giving us fertilizer to grow crops and creating electricity through us using their waste products to create a gas called methane. Cows also help provide jobs for people in many fields and contribute to the economy. Students were able to pretend to be restaurant owners and create menus that provided plenty of dairy products to serve customers. Katie also read a great story about a cow named Buttercup at the state fair to our classes before sharing an invitation to think about joining 4-H this year. She told us that this November will be the first time for an internet based sign-up to be in the 4-H program. She will be providing us with more information soon.

Dr. Leeper

Our third grade classrooms have been studying rural communities with a specific emphasis on cows. We were very lucky to have Dr. Leeper from the Bourbon Veterinary Clinic join us to tell us about what he does for our community, farmers, and animals. Dr. Leeper was able to show us many tools that he uses on the farm while doing his job. He also shared that students need to pay attention to all of their school subjects. Things that they are learning now will be necessary in their careers later in life. Specifically, students need to become good readers in order to be able to do many things such as: study to be a vet, read medicine labels, and ensure to give animals the correct medicines. Math is also very important to a veterinarian since they are always figuring out how much of each medicine is the correct amount to give the animal or a group of animals being treated.

Mr. Riffle visited our class during reading. We were reviewing vocabulary words before taking a vocabulary quiz. He took a great picture of Karmen showing us the words as we tried to find our own word as quick as we could before Karmen did! Great job Karmen and our class, you really knew our words. Thank you Mr. Riffle for a great picture to share.

Welcome to 3rd GradeSummer has gone by so quickly and now it is time for school to start. I am looking forward to a new year and the chance to work with a group of new amazing students and their families. Third grade is a huge change for students and parents leaving second grade. We have many expectations that can seem challenging, but if we all work together and support each other, everything will work out successfully! I am excited to come back to class and share new things I have learned or worked on this summer. I spent two weeks on the campus at Purdue University this summer taking a class called Science Learning in Engineering Design (SLED). It was a wonderful companion class to the one I took last summer. I am looking forward to using the amazing activities and tips that I learned with our new third graders. I am confident that they will really enjoy the activities we do since last year's class truly loved learning with SLED. I have also planned many new ideas that we will add to our daily classroom tasks, along with the use of computers to extend our learning in countless ways! It will be a busy, fast-paced year, but I know it will be GREAT!

Our class webpage is a valuable resource designed to help families know what we are doing in class and keep everyone connected to our current and on-going events. I update homework daily on and add information or pictures from time-to-time. All of web-links that we use in our classroom for all of our subject areas can also be accessed from our website tab. If families have questions, there are several ways to reach me: notes, phone calls, email me at cstrycker@triton.k12.in.us, or use the contact from on this website. I hope you find our class webpage helpful, informative, and enjoyable!

First day of school photos...

Book Orders from Scholastic:Our class sends home book orders for the first week of each month during the school year. Our first book order opportunity went home today in student mail. Families are not obligated to buy items from Scholastic. If ordering books is something you do, there are two options:

1. Order by sending the order form & money to me by Friday, 9/5.2. Order online through the following link that is also located on our class website page near the top of the page: https://orders.scholastic.com/DYDZW

This link will allow you to shop and pay on-line anytime you wish. Typically, books come in the following week around Wednesday or Thursday.

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